The invention relates to an apparatus for storing and conveying cigarettes (cigarette magazine) in conjunction with a cigarette packaging machine, the cigarettes being received in a funnel-shaped container having an open top and a lower portion which consists of a plurality of side by side upright shafts, each shaft serving for receiving a row of superposed cigarettes, the shafts being separated from one another by (thin) upright shaft walls.
Cigarette magazines are part of the standard equipment of a cigarette packaging machine. The cigarette magazine consists of an upper funnel-shaped accumulating container for the cigarettes and of a group of upright or slightly inclined shafts adjoining the bottom side of said accumulating container. The cigarettes are filled continuously or batchwise into the accumulating container via an upper filling orifice. Within this accumulating container, the cigarettes lie closely next to one another in a parallel orientation. The cigarettes move from the accumulating container into the shafts essentially under gravity and form rows of superposed cigarettes in the shafts. At the bottom side of the shafts, the cigarettes are discharged in groups. Several--i.e. up to three superposed--cigarettes are pushed out each time in the longitudinal direction of the cigarettes and thus form a cigarette group corresponding to the contents of a cigarette pack.
The shafts are separated from one another by thin platelike shafts walls which are spaced apart at a distance which is only slightly greater than the diameter of one cigarette. Within the shafts, the cigarettes are downwardly conveyed under gravity.
With filter cigarettes, there often occur malfunctions caused by defective movements of the cigarettes within the shafts. The conveying or falling speed of the filter cigarettes within the shafts is insufficient and as a result the speed in which the cigarette groups are pushed out is inadequate. From time to time the cigarettes jam within the shafts.